Guitar Week #34/2026
Aug 17, 2026 — Aug 23, 2026
Gear made most of the noise this week. Ibanez handed Wes Hauch a Japan-built Custom Shop Iceman seven-string with a $9,999 sticker, Fender pulled the Nocaster and a baritone back into its 75th-anniversary Telecaster run, and Walrus Audio swapped the potentiometer in its new expression pedal for a contactless magnetic sensor. Away from the release calendar, a film built around half-inch videotape shot about 15 feet from Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock finally went public, adding a second camera angle to one of the most studied performances in electric guitar.
🚨 Top stories this week
- Newly surfaced Woodstock footage shows Jimi Hendrix's set filmed from the stage'Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock - A Second Look' premiered on 18 August, built around half-inch videotape a 22-year-old drama student shot about 15 feet from Hendrix in 1969.
- Ibanez gives Wes Hauch a Custom Shop Iceman 7-string, and a $9,999 price tagThe ICWH727 is billed as Ibanez's first commercially available Custom Shop 7-string and the first Japan-built Iceman in more than 30 years, which is the company's explanation for preorders opening near ten grand.
- Fender's second wave of 75th Anniversary Teles brings back the baritone and the NocasterA Player II Baritone Telecaster returns a 27-inch-scale Tele to the standard catalog, joined by an American Vintage II 1951 Nocaster and new Player II Telecaster and Precision Bass colorways.
- Walrus Audio's Canvas Expression pedal drops the pot for a contactless magnetic sensorThe $299 expression pedal reads its position with a magnetic sensor instead of a potentiometer or gears, and carries Expression, MIDI, USB-C and CV outputs plus a web editor for tapers and assignments.
🎸 Gear worth a look
- Epiphone Launches Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom in Black Diamond Holographic SparkleThe Halestorm singer's newest signature is an all-black Explorer with a holographic sparkle finish and mirror pickguard, out worldwide now.
- Charvel adds four Pro-Mod Plus Dinky DK24 models aimed squarely at metal playersThree new humbucker-loaded configurations and one HSS join the Pro-Mod Plus DK24 line, with Floyd Rose or hardtail bridges, Seymour Duncan pickups and finishes running from satin black to a green ombre called zombie face.
- Gretsch wraps a limited-edition Penguin in Light Blue Pearl with a String-Thru BigsbyThe G6134T-58 Limited Edition Penguin pairs a chambered mahogany body and TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter'Tron pickups with a rarely seen string-through Bigsby, listing at $3,799.99.